Fr. Tom grew up in Pennsylvania in a deeply Catholic home where he always saw this picture: a Franciscan chaplain, a close friend of the family, holding him as a baby in his arms. That image never left him. That was the man he wanted to be.

So when eighth grade came, he applied to a Franciscan minor seminary. But his own pastor refused to sign the papers. He told him, "You will be a diocesan priest." Fr. Tom didn't give up. He joined the archdiocese and was ordained in 1976 at the age of 26. He gave twenty-two faithful years of loving service to parishes, schools, and chaplaincy.

But if you know Fr. Tom, you know he was never someone who could stay quiet. His conscience led him to the Plowshares Movement, a pacifist movement resisting nuclear weapons. He faced a possible 30-year prison sentence. Eventually he served 90 days. And when a diocesan official said to him, "Tom, no diocese wants you,” he didn't fight it. He went on a 30-day silent retreat and listened.

At two in the morning, God answered. A voice through his sleep, clear as anything: "Go to the Claretians." He didn't even know who they were. The next morning he looked up the Claretian Missionaries and made a call.

Fr. Tom joined the Claretian Missionaries in 1998 and never stopped: youth ministries, formation, Jamaica, campus ministry, social justice—fifty years of saying yes.

And he's still here. Still listening. Still going wherever God sends him next.